A prominent NBA assistant coach recently looked at his phone as a text message came in from his agent. This posed an unexpected question.
Would you be interested in the WNBA?
The WNBA had never really crossed his mind. The coach, who was granted anonymity to protect his future employment opportunities, was focused on becoming an NBA head coach, or perhaps joining the men’s college ranks in the right situation.
Even within the ranks of women’s college coaches, most have historically sought to climb the NCAA ranks — where the pay and notoriety are higher — and win national titles rather than consider the W.
Times are changing, although the timing – the NBA and college seasons have just started or are about to – is not ideal for available candidates.
The WNBA, unlike other basketball leagues, ends its season in the fall and this year seven of the league’s 12 current franchises have fired their coaches. What remains is a replacement frenzy, a seller’s market.
As such, salaries, the NBA assistant said, are expected to reach $1 million and the Los Angeles Sparks would be willing to pay $2 million.
And that doesn’t even count the opportunity to coach the Indiana Fever and star player Caitlin Clark, who are among the teams looking for a head coach.
What was once an afterthought when it came to coaching suddenly became something different.
“I’m committed to my team,” the NBA assistant told Yahoo Sports, “but with how much they pay the coaches, it’s interesting.”
Or as another NBA assistant and potential head coach remarked to Yahoo Sports: “This is the first time I’ve heard so many people talk about the WNBA. »
There’s probably no simple reason why 58.3 percent of the league’s head coaching positions opened up at once.
Perhaps this is Clark’s way of bringing a surge in popularity to the league, causing owners to become more competitive or impatient. Perhaps that’s how New York Liberty owners Joseph and Clara Wu Tsai invested significant resources into the club and were rewarded with a title earlier this month.
Maybe it’s how the Las Vegas Aces, who won the previous two championships, are coached by Becky Hammon, who was hired by the San Antonio Spurs staff with a million-dollar salary.
Maybe it’s just seven individual situations ending at the same time.
Either way, winning seems to matter a lot.
Think of Christie Sides, Fever’s deceased trainer. The team started the season 1-8, but as Clark was put on a team that also included 2023 WNBA Rookie of the Year Aliyah Boston, the Fever finished 20-20 and reached the playoffs for the first time. times since 2017.
Very good. It still wasn’t enough.
Fever’s work is particularly appealing – not only because Clark and the other young talents soon make them potential title contenders, but also because the franchise can bring a bright spotlight.
It is one of the most important and followed franchises in sports at all levels. The Fever play in front of packed home and away arenas, receive extensive national media coverage and regularly attract millions of viewers for regular season games. The average television audience for an NBA game on ESPN/TNT/ABC in 2023-24 was 1.56 million. Last season, Indiana went better than 13 times and had 22 games that reached a million viewers or more, including on lesser-known channels like ION. There are NBA teams that can only dream of doing this.
Being Caitlin Clark’s coach must be good for a career.
Former Connecticut Sun coach Stephanie White is rumored to be the primary replacement, but it would be the rare WNBA job that could make even a top college coach pause and think.
This is where the WNBA’s timing isn’t ideal. Top college coaches should give up on their teams on the eve of the season. And while it may be impossible to get Dawn Staley (South Carolina) or Geno Auriemma (Connecticut) to leave their well-paid fiefdoms at any time of the year, a higher-level college coach could certainly be interested by the spring.
Operationally, the WNBA still isn’t a moneymaker, but its owners are so rich that that doesn’t necessarily matter. The Tsais, for example, are worth around $9 billion. They looked very happy to accept the championship trophy this year.
Whatever the motivation, more than half the league is suddenly looking to improve its bench, including the most popular team with the most popular player. Salaries are talked about enough that even coaches who previously wouldn’t have thought about it need to think about it.
“Overall,” said one NBA aide, “it’s impressive right now.”
